Epoxidation of polymers has been known in the prior art for some time. For example, Daniel Swern, in Encyclopedia of Polymer Science, Vol. 6, H. F. Mark, N. G. Gaylord, and N. M. Bikales, eds., John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1967, pp. 83-102, reported a procedure for epoxidizing polybutadiene in which the polymer was treated with peracetic acid. Recently, Osamu Hayashi, Hideo Kurihara, and Yukio Matsumoto reported in U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,340 that hydrophilic polymers were prepared which were useful in coatings by epoxidizing polybutadiene and then opening the epoxide by reaction with carboxylic acids in the presence of tertiary amines.